Five Reasons Why Ultra Is Where Your Festival Season Should Begin

With the promise of spring, fatefully due every March, comes Ultra madness. Ultranauts from every nook, cranny, and corner of the world flock to sunny South Florida’s welcoming coastline, voraciously pursuing electronic music’s thunderous heartbeat. House maniacs from Europe travel across the pond for the infamous Carl Cox while Canadians seek respite from the bitterness of winter, sinking their toes into the warm sand of Miami’s beaches. Southern America dawns the doorstep of its home away from home and representation from Asia, notably Japan and South Korea, is never in short supply. There is not a culture underrepresented nor a type of human unaccounted for among the vagabonds walking Miami’s city streets, among the figures perched atop shoulders, proudly waving their country’s flag like an offering before their icon.

And although the faces in the crowd vary, the people foreign to one another, love of music builds bridges amongst diversity. Ultra is not just any festival – if it were people wouldn’t travel in throngs, take off weeks of work, or return year after year to create memories atop mounds of memories. But what makes it so special, a standout within the densely saturated market of music festivals? Here are our top five reasons:

1. The Lineup

Ultra’s recently released lineup confirms the festival’s decade-long trend of enlisting some of the biggest names in the industry. Expect mainstage performances from heavy hitters such as Major Lazer, DJ Snake, Fisher, Kygo, Madeon, Slander, NGHTMRE, Jauz, Eric Prydz, Afrojack, Gryffin, Flume, Zedd and many more. Whatever your fancy, be it house, techno, or dubstep, Ultra 2020 has it booked.

2. #BackToBayfront

Virginia Key who? Ultra is back where it belongs: on the mainland, Downtown Miami, Bayfront.

3. Destination Miami

As a travel destination, Miami slaps. It’s got just about everything, from the most authentic and yummy Cuban food to sunsets beyond the Bay – it’s an urban paradise complete with thriving nightlife, art, eclectic cuisine, and that world-famous tropical weather.

4. Miami Music Week

As if Ultra wasn’t enough of a party, Miami Music Week runs in tandem. For those unfamiliar with MMW, it’s Miami’s five-day-long local celebration of electronic music, furnished with events at every venue and at every hour. Pool parties at sunrise? Doable. Afterparties post Ultra’s operational hours? Say no more. Immersive art spaces compete with DJs, disco balls, and cigs inside? Miami Music Week will make it happen.

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5. The Production Value

Every year, Ultra seeks new heights for pyrotechnics, visuals, and optics. Last year’s Mainstage featured a unique screen design that concaved inward at a focal point, the DJ booth, before stretching outward, the city skyline peaking over its wingspan. Now that Ultra’s back on the mainland, nestled between the skyscrapers of Downtown, we can only imagine the mesmerizing and monolithic structures Ultra’s team of designers and engineers will erect in 2020.

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No matter your reason for attendance – whether it be the lineup, location, culture, or Miami Music Week – one thing is for certain: the three-day, fun-filled rumpus that is Ultra will be a weekend to always remember, a weekend of and for our youth.

Saracha

Heralding from sunny South Florida, I am a proud Florida Woman. In my free time, I surf the swamp, wrangle gators, open fan mail, and tend to my pets. In the wild, I’m most often spotted at immersive art spaces, step tappin’ in a shadowed corner of the club, hater blockerz on, totally incognito as your resident EDM spice girl. Although I generally tout my spicy side, if there’s one thing I’d love to impress upon the world, it would be this: it’s not a waste to give love to those who do not deserve it – it’s a gift. The world would be a better place if we gave, in kindness and in mercy, to those who need it most with no expectation in return.

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